A UNIVERSITY has been slammed by experts after allowing a scientist to carry out controversial work with a pandemic strain of flu virus in a relatively low security laboratory.

Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka has been carrying out work on the flu virus [GETTY/AP]

Senior scientists have accused the University of Wisconsin-Madison of being negligent after allowing Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka to genetically manipulate the H1N1 virus.

The virus killed between 151,000 and 540,000 people in 2009, but since then most people have acquired a level of immunity to the virus, which is now called 'seasonal flu'.

However, the Independent has reported that Professor Kawaoka has spent four years working on ways to mutate the strain so that it is no longer neutralised by the antibodies developed in the general population.

Additionally, his work has been carried out in a laboratory categorised as relatively low biosafety level-2 - when experts say that it should have been carried out in a laboratory with the highest biosafety for controlling dangerous pathogens.

Professor David Relman of Stanford University in California, a member of the US’s National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, expressed amazement that the work was reportedly carried out in a laboratory with minor precautions against accidental release.

He said: "That would be incredible if true because a modified virus that evades available protective immunity clearly mandates much greater biosafety.

"If real, this work is irresponsible, and unduly places humanity at risk of death and illness.

"The apparent lack of common sense and insensitivity to our responsibility as scientists to do no harm, is striking. It would seem that this area of research is now an unregulated free for all."

Professor Sir Andrew McMichael, a vaccine expert at Oxford University, said: "It’s very disturbing and poses real risks that do not seem to be appreciated fully by those involved. Is it really being done at BSL-2? That seems unbelievable."

However, Professor Wendy Barclay, a flu researcher at Imperial College, defended the University of Winsconsin-Madison.

She said: "In nature there is no containment. He’s only doing what happens in nature every day."